I quite liked the red heart desert... it looks more realistic and gives a nice feel for the empty spaces in the centre. I find the v5 background a bit splotchy. Australia isn't USA, and the background shouldn't be aiming to give the same impression. It's a vastly different country, and I think it should feel different to look at.

I like the idea of what you've done with the long distances, although I'd like to see them as better looking rail lines, and some spacings need fixing... Did you just change the style of the single lines to a double line? or did you re-draw single, thinner lines? Some connections don't look good, ie tnc/asp. I wouldn't want to run that line... they need to be parallel between stations, and preferably equidistant apart all the way across the map. Ones like Per-Coo-ADL looks okay, but Alb-Coo-GBN is ugly...

As a note on ports, rather than connecting all ports together (which I think opens the map up -too- much), I'd rather see ports connecting only to adjacent ports, with a ship setting out from one and coming into the next one, before progressing on... Otherwise holding port+mineral will be quite difficult.

Tieryn wrote:I quite liked the red heart desert... it looks more realistic and gives a nice feel for the empty spaces in the centre. I find the v5 background a bit splotchy. Australia isn't USA, and the background shouldn't be aiming to give the same impression. It's a vastly different country, and I think it should feel different to look at.

Fair comment..it drew one from you! I prefer the red heart also, but i still would like some people's feedback on this.

I like the idea of what you've done with the long distances, although I'd like to see them as better looking rail lines, and some spacings need fixing... Did you just change the style of the single lines to a double line? or did you re-draw single, thinner lines? Some connections don't look good, ie tnc/asp. I wouldn't want to run that line... they need to be parallel between stations, and preferably equidistant apart all the way across the map. Ones like Per-Coo-ADL looks okay, but Alb-Coo-GBN is ugly...

Naturally the lines would be made more professional down the track with this map Tieryn,,,this is only something to guage what player might think about that style of line for the long distance trains.

As a note on ports, rather than connecting all ports together (which I think opens the map up -too- much), I'd rather see ports connecting only to adjacent ports, with a ship setting out from one and coming into the next one, before progressing on... Otherwise holding port+mineral will be quite difficult.

OK once again, fair comment and i understand...however the Mineral + port bonus can be increased to cover for holding such a large attak range from other ports.
More comment is needed from others as to this as well. please.

I like the idea of what you've done with the long distances, although I'd like to see them as better looking rail lines, and some spacings need fixing... Did you just change the style of the single lines to a double line? or did you re-draw single, thinner lines? Some connections don't look good, ie tnc/asp. I wouldn't want to run that line... they need to be parallel between stations, and preferably equidistant apart all the way across the map. Ones like Per-Coo-ADL looks okay, but Alb-Coo-GBN is ugly...

Naturally the lines would be made more professional down the track with this map Tieryn,,,this is only something to guage what player might think about that style of line for the long distance trains.

*nod* I figured as much. I like the way you've expressed them in the legend, it's easy to see which states they pass through/from. I'd like to see these as rail+sleeper type of ones that I have seen in some other map.

If the stations inside the states are the single colour, and non-unique rail lines are that colour, I think you could possibly make the long-distance ones unique colours? even though they run through the states, the state bonuses are easily seen by the statelines + station colours... Not sure if this would look better/worse tho...

hey cairns, this looks great!
i much prefer the changes you made for version 7.

i only have one suggestion:
the color bars you use to represent the long distance lines in the legend are a great idea.
and while i know that space is very tight, is there any way you might be able to make them a *tiny* bit thicker?
it hurts the eyes a bit trying to distinguish them.
not a major problem, and if there isn't room, it's understandable.
otherwise, i agree that this should be moved to the foundry.